3. July 2018, 12:22 UhrFMLASteve PalazzoloComments Off on Why? Military Family Leave . . . . Leave because of a qualifying exigency Part . . . Oh I can’t remember.

After a couple of little detours we are back to military leave. This time we are going to talk about taking leave because of a qualifying exigency. Let’s recall the reasons an eligible employee can take leave again:

(1) For birth of a son or daughter, and to care for the newborn child (see §825.120);

(2) For placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care (see §825.121);

(3) To care for the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent with a serious health condition (see §§825.113 and 825.122);

(4) Because of a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of the employee’s job (see §§825.113 and 825.123);

(5) Because of any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a military member on covered active duty (or has been notified of an impending call or order to covered active duty status (see §§825.122 and 825.126); and

(6) To care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness if the employee is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of the covered servicemember. See §§825.122 and 825.127.

29 CFR §825.112(a).

OK we are on (5) now . . . yea! Almost done. OK (5) and (6) deal with leave for military reasons. (6) which we will talk about next time deals with an ill or injured servicemember. That is what this whole statute is about, taking time off when somebody is sick. (5) does not. Nobody here is sick or pregnant. But somebody is in the military.

In this case an employee can take FMLA leave when they have a family member who is on active duty (or is about to be called to active duty) in the military and there is a military “exigency.” That leaves us with what is an “exigency”? I’m not going to spend a lot of time getting into the weeds on this, I’m just going to tell you what an “exigency” is. 29 CFR §825.126(a) lists the exigencies so here we go.

(a) Eligible employees may take FMLA leave for a qualifying exigency while the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent (the military member or member) is on covered active duty or call to covered active duty status (or has been notified of an impending call or order to covered active duty).

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(b) An eligible employee may take FMLA leave for one or more of the following qualifying exigencies:

(1) Short-notice deployment.

(2) Military events and related activities.

(3) Childcare and school activities.

(4) Financial and legal arrangements.

(5) Counseling.

(6) Rest and Recuperation.

(7) Post-deployment activities.

(8) Parental care.

(9) Additional activities.

There is a lot more meat in this regulation. Definitions of what active duty or a call to active duty means and stuff like that. There are also some specific time limits that go with some of these types of leave, for example R & R leave has to be taken within 15 calendar days of the beginning of the family members R & R, and Short Call leave has to be taken with 7 calendar days of the call. If you want the detail you can find it in the regs. or if you are an employer and want to discuss, give me a call.